Brother Jay Bernhardt, Rutgers ’92, has been appointed as the thirteenth president of Emerson College and will begin on June 1, 2023. Bernhardt is the current dean of the communications school at the University of Texas at Austin and is succeeding interim president William Gilligan after the spring 2023 semester comes to a close.
Bernhardt has led the Moody College of Communication at UT Austin since 2016. At Moody, he raised over $145 million in funding, developed a new residential program in New York City, and improved the college’s four-year graduation rate to over 80 percent. Bernhardt appointed Moody’s first associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion, improving the college’s representation of diverse faculty and students and helping to advance a culture of equity and inclusivity.
“I’m incredibly honored and humbled to be named the thirteenth president of Emerson College starting on June 1, 2023. My deepest thanks to the Emerson Board of Trustees for the honor of a lifetime, and to my colleagues at UT and Moody College for the opportunity to serve.”
